page_title: S. D. Curlee
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: S. D. Curlee / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: The rear of an S.D. Curlee bass guitar showing the unusual large brass neck plate.
context_page_description: S.D. Curlee is a guitar manufacturer originating in Matteson, Illinois and presently in central Texas. Peak years were 1977 to 1981 before ceasing production until 2011. For a while its electric basses were popular, much more so than their guitars. They were exported and especially popular in Belgium and Germany during the original run.
context_section_description: The Curlee instruments featured a unique design blend of neck through body and a bolt-on neck, which was anchored in the body with a heavy brass plate.
  Most of the 1970s bass models shared the same basic, almost symmetrical shape (inspired by the Gibson Les Paul Jr. double cutaway), and were available in fretted and fretless versions. The main models were:
  Standard 1 (1 P-bass DiMarzio, mahogany body, maple neck, originally equipped with a Gibson EB-like humbucker, the DiMarzio Model One, located near the bridge)
  Standard 2 (identical to the above but 2 pick ups - P pickup-era only)
  Butcher (body made of butcher block maple)
  Liberty (liberty bell shaped body designed by Denny Rauen)
  Curbeck (body made of walnut, maple stripes)
  Summit (body and neck made of laminated walnut and Maple)
  Yankee (active electronics, walnut body, maple neck, small upper horn/lower bout, ...sort of an 'updated'version of the Curbeck ) - released in the early 1980s. The Yankee was advertised with three different pick up configurations; 1 P-bass (Yankee I), 2-Pbass (Yankee II) and the rare Yankee II-J including 1 P-bass (bridge)/J-bass (neck). Most Yankees have a 2 p-bass pick-up set up (Yankee II).
  Other models and body shapes were prototyped and saw limited production. Some late "Curlee" instruments (late in the original run the brand as applied had been modified, removing the S and D) had painted bodies and set (glued in) necks. A P-bass bodied version was produced along with pointy "Star" model basses & guitars, all in very limited batches. 
  S.D. Curlees feature hardware including Grover tuning heads; brass, Badass II or original Badass bridges; a brass nut and high output DiMarzio pickups. All basses used a 32½" medium scale neck. Some of the original USA basses developed truss rod issues over time. Later models introduced a German Carve body edge and aluminum instead of brass plates.
caption: The rear view showing heavy brass neck plate
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